Hacker
by Stormhawk
Summary: The last few minutes of a hacker's life when they are found by an Agent.


Title: Hacker  
  
Author: Stormhawk  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Disclaimer: This all belongs to The W Brothers and Warner Brothers. And the Agents, don't forget the agents.  
  
Notes: Yeah, a Matrix fic but not part of my Agents series. If you've read my LOTR story Death, it's similar in tone to that. This only took me half an hour to write.  
  
Word Count: 1090  
  
Summary: Hired by Neo and co to hack into the matrix Alana is discovered by an agent. Yeah, the agent is Smith. (Who could have guessed?)  
  
Please Read and Review.  
  
Alana sat at the computer in the dark, empty hotel room. Empty that was, except for her and the computer that was in front of her. Her fingers worked double time as she desperately tried to finish the job.  
  
She was a little nervous sitting all alone, she preferred the brainless chatter of a chat room but she needed the stillness and the dark to be able to hack.  
  
She thought back on what had gotten her this job. She had met this guy on the net, she had never seen him in real life, he had only been than text on the screen and a voice on the phone.  
  
She had gotten herself into a lot of trouble years ago for hacking into a secret government database. Realizing that hackers they put in jail usually turned into worse hackers once they were set free they let her off with a severe warning.  
  
On a dare from a mysterious email she hacked one database after another until they turned into paying bets.  
  
Then she had met Neo in the flesh. He introduced her to man most of the Internet had reduced to an urban legend. The great Morpheus. He had told her that this wasn't the real world and everything like that.  
  
She hadn't been willing to go any further. She was happy to believe that everything around her was real. She had agreed to do a couple of hacks for them as they assured her that she was the only one capable of doing them.  
  
They paid well so she accepted. This was the last job. She was glad of that, they said it was getting too dangerous. She couldn't understand why there was danger, they were only hackers, the worse thing that happened was jail.  
  
Still, she hadn't said no to the gun which lay on the table beside her. Not that she could fire a gun or ever had or had anything more to do with them other than carrying it around for the last forty eight hours in her back pack. Safety on of course.  
  
There was one other thing they had mentioned and shown her. They had handed her a photo of a guy in a suit and warned her that if she ever saw him to run for her life. Computer police hadn't ever killed hackers but she didn't take the warning lightly.  
  
She was getting closer to breaking through the last code wall. This was the hardest thing she had ever done. Her fingers were nothing more than a blur over the keyboard and the only thing she heard was the tapping of the keyboard.  
  
They had been desperate for her to accept this job. As good as they were with manipulating code she had the best skills they had ever seen. Considering she hadn't even turned on a computer until she was ten.  
  
They told her that everything was riding on this. She didn't quite understand their game but when the five grand had gone into her account she had started the job.  
  
The last code wall was proving to be the hardest thing she had ever done. She couldn't see anything besides the glow of the screen, it was as though the rest of the world had ceased to exist.  
  
She sat back from the computer and sighed. Her fingers were getting sore, the code strings that had ever worked for her in the past were refusing to work, she would have to try something new.  
  
Her head hung to the side for a moment and she saw something. She turned her head and saw a man standing across the room from her. She jumped up from her seat and realized that it was the man from the photo Neo had showed her.  
  
She heard his gun click, she had heard the noise too many times in movies not to know what it was. She remembered the warning but there was nowhere to run to, even if she got three feet before he shot her.  
  
'Sit down,' he commanded. Alana slowly sat down in the chair, feeling the chill of inevitability, knowing without a doubt that he was going to kill her.  
  
She was frozen with fear. Unbidden her eyes slid to the gun on the table next to her. It was useless but maybe it would give her a fighting chance. The man followed her gaze.  
  
'If you stay still it will be quick. Go for the weapon and I don't promise the same.' She allowed her head to fall forward, she didn't want to die. She raised her head as the infernal machine beeped at her.  
  
The man took a step closer to her. She looked at the screen, this was the reasons he was going to die young.  
  
Her heart froze further, in all the trillions of combinations of keys her forehead could have hit it had to hit the right combination. She inhaled quickly as her hand drifted toward the enter key. All she had to do was tap it and she wouldn't have died for nothing.  
  
The man raised his eyes and saw the screen. 'Take your hand away from the keyboard.'  
  
Alana didn't budge, her fingers drifted incrementally closer to it. If only he hadn't seen it.  
  
'Stand up, get away from the computer.'  
  
Alana considered it as she brought her finger down toward the button. 'Get up,' he demanded. She stood and backed away from the computer, her head hung low. She wished she had courage, if she had she would have pressed the button no matter the consequences.  
  
She backed away further as the man looked down to the screen.  
  
'You aren't one of them are you? Did they even tell you what you were doing?'  
  
Alana shook her head, unable to form words.  
  
'Would you like to see it?' he asked.  
  
Alana nodded in the affirmative.  
  
'Come here then,' he said in what almost passed for a gentle tone. Gentle compared to how he had been speaking a moment ago.  
  
He reached down and tapped the enter key. It took the computer a moment to respond. After freezing for a moment an elegant scrolling green code filled the screen. Alana couldn't understand it but it was amazing to her.  
  
'Beautiful isn't it?' he asked her. She nodded before a bullet pierced her chest. She died still contemplating what she had seen.  
  
Before Smith left the dark room he turned to the body on the floor and uttered one word. 'Congratulations.'  
  
The End. 


End file.
